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MILITANT Saturday December 21, 1929 The Defense of the Soviet Union and the Opposition carries out the same priaciples in Manchur Revolutionary Aid or ImperialGroupings in the Left Opposition By Trotsky are already establishing schools for the Chinese railwaymen, striving to train them We have established three fundamenticy bears an Imperialist character, it is against Tchang Tso Lin, for the latter had not only technically but also politically.
al currents in International Communism: enough, according to Louzon, to establish: troops in Manchuria while the Soviet That is precisely what arouses the the Right, the Centrist and the Left (Marx What people lives in this province? If troops were a great distance away, But wrath of the Chinese reactionaries. Reu.
ist. This classification does not, however, Northern Manchuria is populated by Rus however far they may have been, they exist.
ter Telegrapbic Agency carried the folexhaust the question, since it leaves the sians then the policy of the czar and the ed. Tchang Tso Lin sometimes took the lowing declaration of Wang, the present uitra Leftists unconsidered. But they exist, Soviet Union is legitimate; but if it is pop offensive, sometimes he beat a retreat. He Chinese Foreign Minister: The only path carry on activity, make mistakos and ulated by Chinese, then this policy means demanded, for example, that the railway for China is the unification of all nations threaten to compromise the cause of the nothing else but robbery and subjugation. unquestionably convey his counter revoluto resistance against Red Imperialism, Opposition. Revolution Proletarienne, August 1, 1929. tionary troops, but basing itselt upon otherwise China will perish in the clutches It is true that there are no longer To read these lines one cannot believe his the treaty, the railway made all sorts of Communism. It is not, as we see, a any, or hardly any, ultra Leftists of that eyes. The policy of the czar and the pol of difficulties for him. He arrested the diquestion of imperialism as such, On the connalvo revolutionary, aggressive type icy of the workers state are considered exrector of the railway, but then beat a retrary, the Chinese government appeals to which Lenin devoted his well known book.
clusively from the national viewpoint and treat. Quite rightly he did not rely upon imperialism against Red Imperialism. Nor have many ultra Leftists of the spirit then completely identified. Louzon de lis forces alone. But Japan, for various which It identifies with the peril of Comn 1924 25 (Maslow and others) remained clares the policy of the czar in the Rus reasons, decided not to support him openly munism. Can one wish for a clearer, more in the Opposition. The experiences of the slan regions to be legitimate (legitime. and remained on the wateh. All together, precise, more deliberate formulation. ceteats did not pass by without effect.
For us, however, the policy of the czar was Louzor sought to demonstrate that the this was a great gain for the Chinese revoBut far from all of the former ultra Leftno less criminal, thievish and enslaving lution which developed from the South to sympathies of the imperialist states are ists assimilated the lessons of these years.
in Siberir than in Manchuria. The policy the North.
on the side of the Soviet government and Somo liberated themselves from prejudices of the Bolsheviks, whether good or bad, against China. In reality, he only showed ad preserved the revolutionary spirit.
that the attitude of the imperialists toOthers tost the revolutionary spirit and la, in Siberia and in Moscow.
wards the Soviet republic is a conflicting preserved the prejudices. Nevertheless Louzon! Apart from nations there are still ist Intervention one in certain questions. Where ImperialThere have remained not a few ultra Leftclasses. The national problem outside of ism bases itself upon the inviolable right of 1sts poisoned with scepticism. They freeclass relations is a fiction, lie and a So as to Illuminate even more glaringproperty, it is compelled to concede this ly proclaim a formal radicalism in all noose for the proletariat.
ly the barrenness of Louzon formalism, right to the Soviet state as well. Were this those cases where it puts them under no Louzon method is not Marxism but we would like to consider the question from ebilgation. In practical questions they innot the case, then even trade, for example, between the Soviet republic and the capicilno Jargely to opportunism, another side. It is well known that the imnaked schematism. It finds its punishment talist countries would be impossible. But If reformism is an 1rreconciliable in the fact that the social democratic pa perialists, in order to intrench themselves in a backward country, frequently arm should It come to war, then the occasion memy, then ultra Leftism is the internal pers almost without exception develop the one tribe against the other, one province for the war, that is, the issue of the possame line of thought and come to a simisease that impedes the struggle with the ilar conclusion, The decision of the SecWe must be freed of it at any against the others, one class against the session of the railway would fade into the enemy.
others, ond International, made under the direction That is how, for example, the background. The imperialists would concost.
United States systematically proceeds in sider the question only from the standof Otto Bauer, covers itself precisely with For many months attempted, by letLouzon ideas. And how could it possi cutting its road to South America, On point of the struggle against the danger tora, to attain clarity from the National bly be otherwise! Social democracy is ne the other hand it is well known that the that they call Red Imperialism. that 19 Committee of the Leninbund on the fundacesarlly formalistic. It feeds upon analo Soviet government rendered far reaching against the international proletarian revoCommunist policy.
mental questions of tution.
gies between Fascism and Communism. aid to the Chinese national revolutionary Nothing came of it. The differences of To it, all those who deny or violate de army from the first days of its formation, In this connection, it is not superfluopinion proved to be too great. There 19 especially during its campaign from the ous to recall the conduct of the White mocracy are equal. Its highest criterion no other way than to bring them out into (in words) is democracy. which the re South to the North. The social democrats emigrants in the Far East. Even the New the open and submit them to a serious exThat of the whole world howled with the bourYork Times wrote: formists place above the classes. Hero (in Washingamination. All the more so since the beis exactly how Louzon proceeds with the geoiste over the military intervention ton governmental circles) the possibility is ginning of such a discussion has already principle of national self determination. of the Soviet Union in China and wanted conceded that the White Russians may have beea made by the editorial board of the That is all the more remarkable since Lou to see in it only the revolutionary veiling provoked the incidents (the clashes at the ournal of the Leninbund, when, in conzon, as a syndicalist, is rather inclined to of the old policy of czarist imperialism.
border) on the Chinese side, which would nection with the conflict between China repudiate democracy formally. But it fre Does Louzon agree with that or not? This hardly have happened otherwise (August and the Soviet Union, not only serious but positively decisive differences of opinion quently happens with the formalists that question is also directed to all of Louzon 17. According to Louzon, it is a question they reject the whole only to bow to the imitators. We Bolsheviks, on the contrary, of China national right to self determinaresulted in the Left Cominunist Opposition.
National self determination is an tion.
part.
believe that the aid rendered the Chinese Chiang Kai Shek embodies demoIn connection with this question, groupings element of democracy. The struggle for Personal shiftings revolution through ideas, men, money, cratic progress, the Moscow governmenthave already arisen.
this right, as for democracy in general, will of course, also follow. One group of arms was the elementary duty of the Soyimperialist dominion. The White emigrants plays a great role in the life of the peo let government. That the Stalin Bucharin are nevertheless, for some reason or other, comrades, who have adopted a false standple, especially in the life of the proletariat. leadership inflicted political injuries upon on the side of the right to national sellpois, will correct it. Others on the conWhoever does not understand how to utildetermination of China and against Rustrais, will deepen their mistakes go to the Chinese revolution that far outweighed ize the institutions and forms of democra the value of the material support, is a spesian imperialism. Doesn this fact alone the extreme, that is, they will end with to completo surrender of the Marxist pocy, among them also parliamentarism, in cial point we will yet speak of. The Menshow what a hopeless mess Louzon got the interests of the proletariat, is a poor stics. That is how it always happens with sheyiks accuse the Soviet government of himsell into by supplanting class politics Menrevolutionary. But from the proletarian imperialism, not because of the with geography and ethnography. The dec going differences when the as yet White bandits who kill Red Army men un lol ined differences of opinion are constandpoint, neither democracy as a whole, shevik line of Stalin Bucharin in the quesnor national self determination as an esat the Chinese frontiers are much more at trollol by great events.
tion but because of the intervention in Every evil also has its virtue.
home, in their fashion, in politics than There sential part of it, stands above the classes, Chinese affairs and the aid rendered the nor does it form a higher criterion of rev Chinese revolution, Was this intervention a Louzon. They do not get tangled up in 1s to inuch spiritual stagnation and routsecondary matters, but reduce the question 100 in the various Opposition groups. Excrime or a service of the Soviet government, olutionary policy. That is why we regard comrade Louzon? It is really hard for me to to its essence: the struggle of the world haustivo scrutiny of the great political the social democratic analogy between speak here of a service, for the intervenbourgevisie against the revolution, Fascism and Bolshevism as a swindle. On events makes it possible for the vital elethe same grounds, we also characterize as tion was only the fulfillment of an ele. Pacifism instead of Bolshevism ments and groups of the Opposition to find gross error the comparison, on the basis mentary duty which arose as much out their right place more casily and to accelof the laws of symmetry of the treaty be of the Interests of the Russian revoluerat thereby the spiritual crystallization By giving up the class standpoint in tween Soviet Russia and China of 1924 with tion the Chinese. Now ask: Could the proceas around the real, and not the imagfavor of the abstract, national standpoint, the imperialist treaties.
Soviet government, while it assisted the Ingry axes.
the Ultra Leftists necessarily slide down To whom would Louzon have wished to South with its left hand, hand over the the revolutionary to the purely pacifist Formalism instead of Marxism give the Chinese Eastern Railway in 1924?
Chinese Eastern Railway to the North with position, Louzon tells how the Soviet troops To the Peking government? But this govits right hand, to the North against which captured the Siberian rallway, and how In the question of the conflict between ernment had neither arms with which to the war was directed. then the Red Army in conformity with the China and the Soviet Union we havo two take it nor legs with which to reach it. Our answer will be: Since the Soviet anti imperialist policy of Lenin, carefully fundamental viewpoints that are bound up The Peking government was a pure fic government could not transfer its railway (seigneusement) called a balt before Chiwith the most important problems of the tion. Marshal Tchang TSO Lin, the leader of from the North to the South in order to Da frontiers; no attempt was made to reInternational revolution and of Marxist the Chun Chu een, the dictator and hang facilitate for the revolution the attack occupy the territory of the Chinese Eastmethod.
man of Manchurie, the paid agent of Jap against the mllitarists of the North, it had ern Railway. Revolution Proletarienne, The most consummate expression of its an, the mortal foe of the national revolu to retain the railway firmly in its hands page 228. So then, the highest duty of the kini of tho formal Leftist viewpoint was tionary movement which broke out vio in order thereby to prevent the imperial proletarian revolution consists in this: givca by Louzon. According to his whole lently in 1925 and transformed itself in Ists and militarists from transforming it carefully to lower its standards before namanner of thought, it was also easiest for 1926 into an expedition of the South into a weapon against the Chinese revolu tional frontiers. That is where the essence hin. Louzon is no Marxist, but a formalist.
against the North, and finally against tion. That is how we understand revolu lay, according to Louzon, of Lenin anHe handles geograpby, technique, statistics Tchang Tso Lin he was a reality. To sur tionary duty in the genuine struggle for ti Imperialist policy! One is asbamed to much better that the materialist dialectic of render the railway to the Manchurian Mar the genuine right of national self determl read this philosophy of the revolution in class society. great deal can frequent shal would mean, in reality, to enter into nation of China.
one country. The Red Army called a halt Jy be learned from his articles, only one an alliance with him against the Chinese At the same time there was still anbefore the frontier of China because it cannot learn anything politically from revolution which was developing. That other task. The policy towards the rall was not strong enough to crons this frontthem. Louzon is much more occupied by would have been better in no respect than way had to be so fashioned that the Chinler and face the inevitable attack of Japanabstract, national justice than by the the delivery of cannon and munitions to ese masses, at least its advanced sections, ese Imperialism. Had the Red Army been real struggle for the liberation of the op White Poland in 1920 during its war with could clearly understand the liberating strong enough for such an attack, it would pressed peoples. Louzon points out in de the Soviet Republic. That would be no have had the duty to undertake it.
aims and tasks of the Soviet government Its tail that the Chinese Eastern Railway was fulfillment of revolutionary duty, but the with regard to China. have already spokabandonment of the revolutionary attack built by czarlsm for the purpose of rob most disgraceful treason to the Chinese en of this when cited the decisions, form upon the forces of Imperialism would bave bery and plunder. He shows on the map revolution, the real one that is being aculated by me and adopted in April 1926, of been a surrender of the interests of the that this railway runs through Manchuria. complished classes, and not its abstract the Commission of the Central Committee Chinese workers and peasants and the proHe proves by statistical data that Manchushadow that lives in the head of Louzon of the Russian Communist Party. The letarian world revolution and would not ria has been colonized by Chinese peasants and formalists, Ilke him.
essence of those decisions was: We regard have meant the fulfllment of Leninist polfor the last decades. In this way, we have Lost in contradictions, Louzon goes the Chinese Eastern Railway as a weapon Icy, but only a shameful betrayal of the a Russian railway on Chinese soll next to 80 far in his contentions as to repruve the ABC of Marxism. Wherein Hes the misthe railways of the imperialist of the world revolution. More directly: of states.
Soviet government for the fact that, on the Russian and the Chinese revolutions.
fortune of Louzon and his like? In the Where does the difference Ile? asks LouSeptember 20, 1924, it signed treaty with World imperialism can of course, directly fact that he substitutes national pacifist for zon. There is no difference, or practically chang Ts Lin, the most reactionary of or indirectly, openly or concealedly, tear international revolutionary policy.
That none he concludes. The treaty of 1924 all militarists that ever ruled in China. the rallway from us. so as to avoid serious has nothing in comon with Lenin, was an imperialist treaty. Lenin would True, the most reactionary. Instead of consurely have returned the rallway to China cluding a treaty with him, which protectconsequences, we might reach the point TO BE CONTINUED of having to surrender the railway to imLouzon knows this quite definitely. ed the rallway from this worst reactionIn order to demonstrate whether polo ary, we should rather aconrding to Louzon, the Brest Litovsk peace. But so long as periallam, as we were compelled to sign Max Shachtman will speak on the Hoover Program at the open foran of the simply have made him a gift of it.
we have the power and possibility, we will Communist League branch on Sal Louzon 16. one of the editors of LA Of course the treaty of 1924, which protect it from imperialism and hold it urday, December 21, m, at the MutRevolution Proletarienne, organ of the abolished all the imperialist privileges of ready to be handed over to the victorious lant Hall, 25 Third Avenue, Room A11 Syndicalist League of France.
Russia, gave no absolute guarantees Chinese revolution. Towarde this end, we workers cordially invited.